St Mary’s is the only Catholic church in Al Ain. It is situated opposite the Oasis Hospital, and diagonally across from the imposing Etisalat building in Sanaiya.

Most of the congregation is Filipino. Very few of the people there are European.

The main priest is from India. The only masses are on Fridays.

The Al Ain Evangelical Church is located behind the Oasis Hospital, which is across the road from the Etisalat Building…

It has 2 services every Friday: at 9am and 11am.

I’m not a church goer, but I was very keen to check it out, so I went along this morning to the 9am service. This is what it looked like before it started, and most of the seats got filled up…

The church has 5 different rock-type bands, and one of these, led by a guy called Campbell from Australia, ran through several songs for the first half an hour, with the lyrics projected onto the screen you can see to the right of the cross in the photo above.

After a rundown of church activities over the coming weeks, Reverend Brad Hillman gave a 40-minute sermon, again using Powerpoint. The band repeated one of the earlier songs, and the service ended: it was 10.30am.

I found the whole thing to be quite heart-opening, so I’ll certainly visit again. I was brought up a Catholic, so this was a very different experience: modern music and a long sermon, compared with generally traditional hymns, prayers, and a short sermon.

I have been told that the 11am service is much more packed out.

Oh yes, all the children go into a separate room for activities and stories to suit their age and level of understanding.

Finally, behind the church is a small swimming pool, so I popped in as I left to see Reverend Steve Tripp baptising a young woman in it.

Their website is at www.aaec.ae.

And their telephone number is 03 722 3337